Football: As the Playoffs Arrive

With their teams out of the playoff picture, Mountlake Terrace and Mariner high schools played for pride on Friday night. Terrace has been a perennial 3A power since Tony Umayam became the head coach of the Hawks. Historically, before Umayam took over, they had fielded teams of extremely talented but somewhat undisciplined kids (Since both my son and daughter played basketball for the school and my daughter was Homecoming Queen, I feel that I can objectively say this), but that has changed. Umayam is the real deal, and he has his kids playing football smart and at a high energy level. They are tough and quick, and for the most part, disciplined. Uncharacteristic for one of Umayam’s teams, they had a couple of penalties Friday night that hurt them. Had Terrace won the game, that would give them the most wins of any football team in school history, seven. Had Mariner lost, they would have had a break-even record at 5-5. As it turned out, the two teams finished with identical 6-4 records with Mariner winning 42-31.

The game was actually a tale of two running backs. Terrace’s Devonte Downs, a 6’0″, 180 pound freshman ran with quickness and power. That is right; Downs is a FRESHMAN who runs like a senior. He gained 183 yards on 32 carries, and he ran with determination. You want running backs to “die hard”, and this kid did just that. He got every inch out of a run. Impressive indeed. In my fifty-six years around this game, I had never seen a freshman do that. The other running back was Mariner’s KeiVarae Russell who also started at running back as a freshman. Working out of the Wing-T, Russell ran for 185 yards on 26 carries. Just as no two singers, writers, or poets are alike, no two running backs run the same either. KeiVarae is an artist, and the football field is his canvas. On one off-tackle carry In Friday’s game, he broke outside and started down the right sideline. A linebacker moved to cut him off, stepped in front, and positioned himself for the tackle. KeiVarae came to a dead stop just as the linebacker launched himself to make the tackle. By the time he arrived at the spot where his target should have been, KeiVarae was already in full flight 90 degrees to his left and heading across the field for the score. He finished with three rushing touchdowns and a fifty-two yard fumble recovery for his fourth. It was a situation that might be seen on a Saturday morning cartoon, and it left me shaking my head in disbelief. On another play he made at least four great moves on a six-yard gain. That run reminded me of a time when I asked Terry Metcalf the great NFL running back of the old St. Louis Cardinals, if it was true that some of the greatest runs he had made were only two or three yards long. He said that some of his best runs just got him back to the line of scrimmage. These are two excellent young running backs whom we will hear a lot about in the future.

Russell has run for approximately 1750 yards this year, and he did so behind a line that had only one returning experienced player. The fact that the line jelled enough to help gain that much yardage can be attributed to line coach Don Harney, a retired teacher and coach and a member of the Washington State Coaches’ Hall of Fame. Tom Myrhe, the defensive coach, had to work with a line that had no real varsity experience. Those two, along with head coach John Ondriezek and the other Mariner coaches, took a very young team within one game of the state playoffs.

The other interesting note concerning the game came when QB Alex Coffman threw a pass to sophomore Taylor Garneau who tight-roped along the sideline for the score. Taylor stepped in for his brother Jordan, a senior who had suffered a season-ending leg injury a couple of weeks earlier. Jordan had been the Marauder’s go-to receiver during the season and now that mantle had been passed on to his younger brother.

NO INVOLVEMENT…JUST WATCHING AND ENJOYING

We took a trip to Marysville-Pilchuck’s beautiful football facility to watch a game that had significance only in terms of regional pride. The Arlington Eagles, out of Wesco’s North Division, played the Graham-Kapowsin Eagles It was a great game with the larger G.P. line opening up lanes for another tough, hard-running back. Matt Dawley packed 185 pounds into his 5’9″ frame and he ran angry, like he was teed-off at the world. He absolutely attacked defenders. In fact, he reminded me of the Green Bay Packer great Jim Taylor, who ignored an easy TD in the corner of the end zone and instead planted his right foot, turned upfield, and ran over a linebacker as he scored. When Vince Lombardi asked why in the heck he would do that, Taylor said, “Ya gotta sting ’em a little, Coach”. Matt Dawley “stung ’em” a lot on Saturday.

Graham-Kapowsin lost the game because they couldn’t keep hold of the ball, and Arlington could. Arlington’s QB Skylor Elgarico ran a fumble recovery back 80 yards for a touchdown after he had thrown an interception that was returned 33 yards for a G.P. touchdown. Arlington countered Matt Dawley with a kid straight out of the Fifties, a triple-threat tailback. Colton Hordyk ran for two touchdowns, kicked off, kicked all the extra points, played a great game at safety, and probably sold Kettlecorn at halftime.

Arlington’s victory was improbable at the outset because they had lost their starting quarterback and Wesco North’s leading rusher, running back Riley Cobb. It is a tribute to their coaching staff that the entire Arlington team seemed to have bought into their program. They weren’t derailed after G.P.’s early successes as they could easily have been. Their defense forced six turnovers, and they always had players around the ball. If a G.P. fumble occurred, their were three or four Arlington players scrambling to recover it. It was an impressive effort.